Love in the Lab
by theAfanc
Summary: This story takes place between season 3&4. Currently in the works and has been revised a few times.


_Story: Eighteen years ago, two children met at a preschool in Michigan. From first glance, they knew they would be best friends. The two friends grew-up together and had a lasting friendship beyond what most people could comprehend. Until something changed within him and he started to fall for her; but his friendship was too valuable, so as all teenaged boys do, he kept his feelings a secret. If only he'd realized that she was in love with him too. They swore on each other's blood that they would always be together and one day work together. Both had a passion for forensics._

 _However, it seemed things were not meant to be. Around the girl's sixteenth birthday, her father got a job in Canada. She had been allowed to stay in Michigan with her friend for eight days, but the day after her birthday she was forced to fly to Montreal. Although their lines of communication were lost, she never went back on her word. Earning dual doctorates in forensic anthropology and forensic entomology, and currently studying forensic psychology, she found a great job with the Quebec Provincial Police._

Finally! She was getting out of this place! Amy Hollester had lived in Montreal, Canada for twelve years; and though she loved it there, it was time to get out. And she couldn't imagine a better excuse, for she had been called to the Jeffersonian Institute in Washington DC by none other than Dr. Temperance Brennan.

It had taken her all of ten seconds to answer "yes" to Dr. Brennan's request Nit a moment had passed, however, before the celebrity scientist had explained that she needed to be at the airport in an hour for the plane that was pre-paid. Thankfully she didn't have much to pack, so it didn't take long. She had shoved all of her clothes into a large bag, tossed on a pair of shoes, grabbed her phone and iPod off the kitchen counter, ate a muffin and headed down to the lobby. After checking out of her temporary apartment and hailing a cab, she was finally on her way to the airport, only to stand in what felt like a thousand different lines; check-in, bag check, security, more security, boarding. With only minutes to spare, she slumped down in her airplane seat, letting out a huge sigh of relief. The plane ride lasted approximately 5 hours, and she sat impatiently through the whole thing, much to the chagrin of her seatmate.

Finally touching down at Dulles International Airport, Amy exited the craft and made a beeline for Baggage Claim. Rescuing her lone duffle, she calmly headed outside into the bright sunshine of Washington D.C. Her dream job, working at the Jeffersonian, was so close she could nearly taste it! She found a taxi and headed over to the museum. Only after she had stridden confidently through the front door did she realize that she had no idea where to go. She walked up to the information desk and gave them her name. The guy only nodded and handed her a dark blue lab coat and pointed toward the elevator. **"Three."**

She thanked him out of habbit, though his off-putting attitude hadn't really warranted her kindness. But she wasn't thinking about things like that; not now that she knew Dr. Brennan was only three floors above her. Amy pressed the button and the doors slid open. It only took a minute to get to the third floor. Amy took a deep breath and put on her lab coat before exiting into the main Medico-Legal laboratory.

The place was huge and very shiny, standing in stark contrast to what she was used to. There was a huge platform in the center and there where about fifteen people working at different sections. She was finally here! She just hoped she would be able to stick around. From what she had gathered on the phone, she wasn't the first person that had been asked for this job; she just wondered why they needed someone so quickly. She took another deep breath and headed to the stairs that led to the platform, which was guarded by a burly looking security guard. Chancing a glance past the rent-a-cop, she nearly fainted. There stood Dr. Brennan, talking to some of the other people on the platform. This was all too good to be true.

 **"Who are you?"** Amy whirled around to find a tall woman with black hair pulled tightly into a bun. She wore a chocolate brown long sleeved shirt and nice black pants. She had a clipboard in her hand and was giving Amy a look of interest and expectation.

 **"Oh um yea. Sorry, I didn't know where to um…"** She put a lock of her dark red hair behind her ear. **"I'm Amy…Hollester."** A hand shot out in offering. **"I was called by Dr. Brennan."**

 **"Oh, of course! Dr. Hollester."** Once she had realized there was no intruder, the woman smiled warmly. She took the badge that had been clipped to her shirt and swiped it through what looked like a credit card scanner. The red light turned green and she headed onto the platform, motioning for Amy to follow. **"Dr. Brennan. This is Dr. Hollester."** Although she had interrupted the anthropologist, there seemed to be no animosity.

 **"Oh yes!"** Dr. Brennan turned and smiled at Amy. **"Dr. Hollester."** She held out her hand. Amy took it and grinned.

 **"Hey, Dr. Brennan. I cannot tell you how absolutely thrilled I am to be here."**

 **"Doctor really? At her age?"** Clearly evesdropping was not a frowned upon act in these parts. A tall, suited man with broad shoulders spoke up from where he'd been texting. **"I mean, I know they're making them younger now a days but sheesh**."

 **"Yes, a Doctor. She has a doctorate in Forensic Anthropology, Forensic Entomology and she is studying Forensic…Psychology. She has also worked with Suerte de Quebec, the Quebec Provincial Police."** Amy stood in silence as she listened to her idol ramble off her credentials like they were personal. Was it normal for the interviewer to memorize your school records?

 **"I'm just going to pretend like I know what that is. So, she's working for us now, Bones?"**

Dr. Brennan shrugged. **"Her resume certainly is impressive. But that doesn't mean anything. She needs to prove herself."**

 **"Oh, hey! I can do that**." I butted in, suddenly feeling like the awkward third wheel. **"I'm all about the proof."**

Someone on the platform laughed. **"She's just like him. I think she'll take his place just fine."** So she had been right. She had been offered this job because someone else had left.

 **"No one will take his place."** Judging by the uneasy look on Dr. Brennan's face and her tone of voice, this was all a sore. Suddenly feeling like she was under a microscope, Amy rocked on her heels and stuck her hands in the pockets of her coat.

After a moment, it seemed Brenan regained her composure and took to the roll of introducer. **"Dr. Hollester, This is Dr. Hodgins, Angela Montenegro, Dr. Saroyan, and Special Agent Booth."** Dr. Brennan said, indicating each member of the team in turn.

 **"Hey."** Amy waved generically at the group with a sheepish grin on her face. She wasn't at all sure how to break this awkward tension. Almost as if in answer to a silent prayer, Booth's cell phone rang. Everyone stood in silence to listen tot eh one-sided conversation. **"Booth. Yea. Ok, we'll be there in ten."** He closed the Razor and stuck it back in his pocket. **"Bones, we gotta case."**

Dr. Brennan turned to Amy and smiled. **"Amy, you're coming with us."**

Booth faltered on his way down the stairs. **"We're taking a squint? We haven't brought one of those out to the field in a while."**

 **"It's the best place to prove what she can do."** It seemed as though this was not a debate and before she knew what was going on, Amy had been whisked away.

* * *

 **"All right, this is the place."** Booth shut of the engine and opened his door. Both girls followed suit. There where plenty of police cars parked outside the convenience store and yellow tape around the front door. The trio ducked under it and headed in. **"Hey, Booth! It's back here."** Someone shouted from an unseen place. They followed the voice to the back corner of the store. A decomposed corpse lay on the ground and the site markers and parameters had already been put up.

 **"Well, Dr. Hollester?"** Dr. Brennan asked, indicating the rotting corpse.

The interview started now. She took a deep breath and bent down, kneeling beside the deceased. **"He was killed by a single stab wound to the chest."** That was obvious. She needed something more impressive. **'According to these little guys, he was killed about Hmm…five days ago. I'd estimate him at about 18 years of age."**

 **"Good. Anything else?"** Brennan stood with her arms crossed, watching the potential intern closely.

 **"He liked the cold. He was a snowboarder**." She looked up at the other two.

 **"How can you tell that?"** Booth, who was taking notes, seemed unconvinced.

 **"Stress markers on the bones of repetitive shifting on the hip and ankle. Normally, given our location, I would say skateboarder. But this-"** Amy pointed to a logo on a patch of fabric – **"Is a snowboarding company. It looks as if he also broke his leg about a year ago in a in a snowboarding accident. It healed."**

 **"She knows about modern day companies? Bones, where'd you find this one?"**

 **"Good. We need this body sent to the Jeffersonian, and all this food and the products in these three isles."** Brennan motioned to the isles around the corpse. Then she laid her hand on Amy's shoulder. **"Well done. Now let's get back."**

The three turned and headed back to Booth's car and Amy couldn't help but feel a bit confused. Had the three of them really gone all the way out here just for that five minute event? They arrived before the body and the evidence, so Brennan decided to give Amy the tour. She took the new girl through Angela, Hodgins, and her own work stations before finishing at one down the hall. **"This is the examination room, where the bones go once they've been cleaned."**

Amy nodded but for the first time she found it difficult to keep her mouth shut. She casually pointed to a man out in the hallway who, it seemed, had been following them.

 **"Oh, him. Right, well. That is Dr. Lance Sweets. He's our profiler. Should you get the job, you will be working as his assistant to further your Forensic Psychology degree."**

 **"Um. If I may ask, why do you keep saying it like that? 'If you get the job'".**

 **"Dr. Hollester-"**

 **"Amy is fine."**

 **"Dr. Hollester. There are many interns who have applied for this position. None have been as qualified as you, however we are all in a bit of a state of unrest and just because you have a good resume does not mean you will fit in here. Nothing is permanent."** Amy wasn't entirely sure what to make of that. It seemed an odd thing to say but she definitely wasn't one to argue, especially not in this position. But almost as if she'd been listening, Angela poked her head into the room. **"Amy. Could I talk to you in my office?"**

Amy looked at Dr. Brennan who had turned and no longer seemed to be paying attention to her which she assumed was permission. **"Um. Sure…"** Amy turned and followed the attractive, dark-haired woman into a large room she had passed earlier on the tour. Once they were inside, Angela had shut the doors she turned on her heels. Suddenly she didn't look as pretty.

 **"Listen. You'll soon figure out the way things are around here, You don't mention Him. You make no notion to ask or even imply your interest in why you where called here when you did. You don't know the story, you never will. No one will tell you about Him so just leave it alone. If you put Brennan in pain I will eat you alive. Got it?"**

Amy lifted her eyebrows and watched the older girl closely. **"I wasn't planning on asking. I'm just happy to be out of Montreal. It was not my intention to…inflict pain."**

 **"Oh. In that case, this conversation never happened and I think we could be great friends."**

There was a knock on the door and Amy suddenly found herself wondering how everyone managed to have such perfect timing. **"It's here."** Amy recognized Hodgins' voice and realized he must mean the body had arrived from the crime scene. At the platform, Amy nearly stepped up but Angela's arm shot in front of her. She held out the card that had been attached to the pocket on her coat and swiped it. The three walked onto the platform.

The body was lain out on a silver table and Dr. Brennan was already leaning over it. Booth and Sweets sat off to one side while Cam stood ready with a trey of empty peitree dishes. Angela joined the guys in the corner and Hodgins and Amy joined Brennan **"Well, this one should be fun. No soil to work with. A convenience store, you said?"** Hodgins seemed a bit sad and Cam nodded to his question. **"Ah, linoleum. That's always fun."**

 **"What do the bugs tell you about time of-"** Cam found herself cut off.

 **"I'd say five to seven days, judging the stage of the maggots. But I don't think he was killed at the store. Someone would have noticed a rotting...murder..."** Amy stopped when she realized that everyone in the vicinity had started to stare. **"What? Did I do something wrong?"**

 **"I'm the bug guy, princess."** Hodgins said with a territorial shrug.

 **"Oh. I'm sorry."** She bowed her head in a gesture that matched her words. **"It's just that, back at my lab I pretty much did it all. And I mean it all. From the bones to the bugs, even the police work and the arresting. I didn't realize I had overstepped my bounds."**

 **"No, no. It's fine. Maybe with you around I can get a day off of work for once!"** He laughed and started to unbutton his lab coat as if ready to take off. But a glare from Cam stopped him in his tracks. Amy couldn't' help but chuckle – this certainly was a fun work place. **"All right, fine."** Hodgins scrapped a few bugs from the body and put them in a container and left the platform.

 **"Amy, I need to you to start analyzing the wound. We need the murder weapon."**

Amy nodded. " **Of course, Dr. Brennan**." She bent low over the single wound in the victim's chest. **"Single stab wound. Through the heart. Weapon was about three inches in diameter here, where it struck. And"** She bent down to look under the table, coming up a few seconds later. **"Right. Your tables aren't…transparent."** Angela and Sweets laughed. **"May I?" S** he indicated the body.

 **"Of course."** Brennan replied.

Amy gently lifted the right shoulder of the victim to take a look at its back. **"Um, exit is about a quarter of an inch in diameter, meaning this thing came to a point. I can identify any particulates left in the wound to see what this thing was made of."** Dr. Brenan said nothing but her expression was all too clear. Amy grabbed one of the dishes and salvaged some of the flesh from around the wound. Her attention found a microscope on the far end of the platform and she quickly got down to business. But it wasn't long before she had to admit, she was buzzled. Her eyebrows furrowed as she lifted her head. There were no particulates in the wound. The last thing she wanted now as to seem like she didn't know what she was doing so she double and triple checked. But when no answers came to her, she had no choice but to call Dr. Brennan's attention to her findings. **"Dr. Brennan? There's something you should probably see."**

 **"I'll be right there."** Dr Brennan said. She had been talking to Booth and looked relieved to be called away. Amy rolled her chair away from the scope to allow Dr. Brennan the room.

 **"There's nothing here."**

Amy nodded. **"My confusions exactly."**

She moved away from the scope and back over to where the Agent was standing and Amy assumed she was to bring the sample back over to the body. **"There don't appear to be any particulates in the wound. At all. There was nothing I would have recognized from any weapon I've seen. I don't know of any weapons that leave nothing behind but then again, I'm not the expert."**

 **"Are we allowed?"** It was Cam who had looked up from the fleshy body, suddenly surprised and a bit worried.

Angela piped up from where she was standing, suddenly interested int his conversation. **"We're just visiting."**

 **"We can't all go."** Dr. Brennan said.

 **"Why not? We have a right to see him, he's our friend and we won't pass up a chance to visit."** She had her arms crossed as she stared at Brennan.

It wasn't worth arguing, it seemed because Dr. Brennan said no more to Angela. **"Amy, there are portable microscopes in the closet down the hall. Get one and the flesh sample and meet us downstairs."**

Angela, Brennan, Hodgins, Sweets and Amy had managed to cram into Angela's four-seater. Thankfully, it wasn't a long drive, only fifteen minutes, although Amy had to admit she hadn't expected to be this close to her co-workers this quickly. She fingered the microscope, opening her mouth to say something before deciding it was better not to. She tried to fathom who they could all be going to visit and why they couldn't come to the lab to look at the sample.

They car finally parked and the group filed out. Amy looked up at the large, white building and was rather surprised at the title on the sign. **"A psychiatric ward?"** The question was a mumble when she caught a glare from Angela. She stood back with the others as Dr. Brennan spoke to the guy at the counter. Then she nodded and headed over to the elevator. Floor two. They stepped out of the elevator and as if in a pack, although Amy still found herself in the back of the group, clutching the microscope to her chest.

She followed the bulk of people without really realizing the direction she was headed in or who the front members of the group had started to speak to. **"Dr. Brennan!"** The voice was familiar and one she hadn't heard in a long time but there was no mistaking the odd inflection that had been there since they were kids. Her head snapped forward in the direction of the voice and her mouth fell open as one by one, each member of the party realized she had frozen.

He had turned to see what his friends were staring at and in a flash of recognition, his expression matched hers perfectly. The pair stood there, dumbfound for what felt like eternity. But in an instant, as if a button had been pushed, both broke out into a huge grin. **"Amy - ", "Zack - "** they said in unison. The microscope fell to the floor as the long lost friends embraced and the others looked on dumbfounded.


End file.
